AN angry father claims he had to wait two weeks for someone to pick up a discarded syringe after it was found in a Worcester children's play area.

Paul Birch said he was putting up Christmas decorations outside his parents' house in Turners Close, Brickfields, when a group of children ran up and presented him with a beer can.

The "10 to 13-year-olds" told him it contained a used needle they had found while they were playing in the park, which they had put in the can themselves.

But Mr Birch said despite taking it off them and reporting it to Worcester City Council's environmental health department, the can was still sitting under his parents' car a fortnight later.

"When I rang environmental health the day after it was found, they said, no problem, we'll come and move it, but a week later they still hadn't been," the 37-year-old father-of-three said. "I left messages and went up to see them twice, but nothing.

"I have an eight-year-old son with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder who I had to keep away from his grandparent's house."

In the end, Mr Birch said he gave the department an ultimatum - pick up the needle or he would dump it on their doorstep with a bill for a full valet of his car.

Within an hour it was picked up, but the lorry driver, of Goldsmith Road, Brickfields, said the attitude of the department had been dreadful.

"The man I spoke to before it was eventually picked up said he couldn't come because he didn't have an order and knew nothing about it," said Mr Birch, who maintained there was someone in at the Turners Close home at all times.

"I was so angry I said, 'why don't you just come out here and pick it up instead of sitting around doing nothing'."

Principal environmental health officer Martin Gillies said it had been referred to contract services to be picked up the day it was reported.

"I'd find it very surprising if it wasn't picked up straight away as we issue an order within a matter of hours," he said.

Assistant director of contract services Mike Harrison said someone had been out to pick up the needle during the two weeks but no one was in at the house.

"If we had known exactly where it was being kept we would've picked it up immediately, but it wasn't on the log," he said.